AAP accuses BJP of kidnapping its Gujarat candidate
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, on Wednesday, levelled serious charges against the ruling BJP for forcible withdrawal of papers of AAP’s Surat East candidate in Gujarat after kidnapping him.
The senior AAP leader accompanied by his supporters later reached the Election Commission’s office here demanding action.
In a series of tweets in Hindi, the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister alleged “BJP’s goons in Gujarat kidnapped AAP Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwala and then forced him to withdraw his nomination after putting pressure on him by the police.”
“What is the fun of holding elections in such a situation?” he questioned.
In another tweet, he alleged, “BJP is murdering democracy by kidnapping AAP’s Gujarat candidates and forcibly withdrawing their nominations. I have come to appeal against it at the Election Commission of India office.”
Talking to mediapersons outside the poll panel’s office, Sisodia urged the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to provide time to meet him as this was an emergency situation.
In another tweet, the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister said “Candidate was kidnapped. His nomination was withdrawn at gunpoint. What is the bigger emergency for the election commission than this one? So, we people have come to the doors of the Election Commission of India requesting it to take immediate action.”
Sisodia and other AAP leaders also raised slogans against BJP outside Nirvachan Sadan. They raised slogans “BJP murdabad (Down with BJP)”, “candidato ka apharan band karo (stop kidnapping candidates)” and “chunav aayog action lau (election commission, take action).”
Meanwhile AAP’s national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha tweeted a video stating “Watch how police and BJP goons together – dragged our Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwala to the RO office, forcing him to withdraw his nomination. The term ‘free and fair election’ has become a joke!”
The voting for the Gujarat Assembly elections will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5 while the counting of votes will be done on December 8.
The last dates of withdrawal of nominations are November 17 and 21 for the first and second phases respectively.
